Football World Cup: Favorite Spain embarrasses itself against outsiders Cape Verde

Football World Cup

Spain embarrassed itself against outsiders Cape Verde

At the start of the World Cup, Spain had an easy task on paper. But in the end the top favorite gave up.

The Spanish national soccer team suffered a bitter setback at the start of the World Cup. The favorites couldn’t get past a 0-0 draw against the blatant outsiders Cape Verde. The reigning European champions created a few chances, but were repeatedly denied by the brilliant Vozinha in Cape Verde’s goal.

The Spaniards started the game without superstars Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams, who were injured before the start of the tournament, and only substituted the exceptional talents in the second half after whistles from the fans. But they couldn’t score again either. Spain will face Saudi Arabia and Uruguay in the remaining two group duels.

For Cape Verde, with 500,000 inhabitants the third smallest World Cup participant, winning a point in the duel between number three and number 64 in the world rankings is already the greatest success in football history.

Before the game, de la Fuente had warned against underestimating the underdog, while at the same time Cape Verde’s national coach was aggressive. “We want to play without fear. We didn’t come here just to compete, we came here to compete,” said Pedro Leitao Brito. And the Spaniards actually had a hard time.

Although they controlled the ball right from the start, in the absence of star players Yamal and Williams, whom de la Fuente initially put on the bench after their injuries, they lacked creativity and pace. Consequently, Cape Verde had little trouble defending against Spanish efforts. The offensive trio Ferran Torres, Mikel Oyarzabal and Gavi were almost completely unavailable in the first half hour.

It was clear that Spain were missing the genius of Yamal, who was not yet fit for 90 minutes after a thigh injury sustained in April. His representatives only turned up the heat shortly before halftime. After a pass from Rodri, Marc Cucurella headed to Torres (39′), who only hit the crossbar, and the following header from Oyarzabal was deflected over by Cape Verde’s goalkeeper Vozinha. Immediately before the break, the 40-year-old keeper made another strong save against Torres (45th) and Aymeric Laporte (45th + 3).

After halftime the picture was similar to that in the first half. Spain had the visual advantage, but the Africans continued to put up a good fight without appearing offensive themselves. Vozinha continued to be strong and in the position against Fabián Ruiz (56th). In the 71st minute, de la Fuente had seen enough and brought Yamal into the game for Gavi, and a little later Williams too. But even the ball artists couldn’t get the winning goal.